29 November 2017

Themes

  • Political Revolutions
  • Industrial Revolution
  • Egalitarian Revolutions

French Revolution (1789-1799)

The Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houël (1789)

The execution of Louis XVI, copperplate engraving by Georg heinrich Sieveking (1793)

La Marseillaise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM

Casablanca (1942)

Discussion Questions:

How does the anthem reflect an active application of Enlightenment ideals?

In its presentation of nationalist rhetoric, in what ways does the anthem reject the earlier European status quo politically? Socially?

Battle of the Pyramids, a decisive victory for the French under Napoleon Bonaparte over local Ottoman forces, fought on 21 July 1798. By Louis-François Lejeune (1808).

Napoleon: Total War (2010), a video game series combining real-time battles with turn-based grand strategy

What did the Revolution accomplish?

  • All of France's territorial gains reversed, but …
  • Mass conscription and mobilization changed the nature of warfare
  • Metric System rationalized units of measurement and established a global standard
  • Code Napoléon (est. 1804) created the first modern pan-European legal code, influencing subsequent law codes in Europe, the middle east, and the Americas
  • Enlightenment principals inspired the establishment of the modern educational system in France
  • The destruction of monarchies laid the groundwork for the unification of new European nations . . .

The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi, 5 January 1824. A noted Romantic poet, Byron fought and died for the Greek Revolution, in part ensuring the intervention of western powers on their behalf. By Theodoros Vryzakis (1860).

Liberty Leading the People, romantic personification of the July Revolution of 1830. By Eugène Delacroix (1830)

The Revolution of 1848 in Berlin, showing monarchist (horizontal stripes) and republican (vertical columns) flags painted circa 1848-1850

The unification of Italy, 1815-1870

Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1866

The proclamation of the German Empire in the Versallies Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871. By Anton von Warner (1885)

A reproduction of a Spinning Jenny invented in 1764, which reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, creating the start of the factory system

The Salamanca built in 1812, one of the world's earliest locomotives, painted by George Walker (1813)

Wanderer above the sea of fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

The Internationale

https://youtu.be/3BIvqbyku5g?t=1m59s

As re-written and performed by Billy Bragg (2009)

Discussion Questions:

What ideals are expressed in this anthem? How do they compare and contrast with those of the La Marseillaise?

How does the message communicated compare and contrast with that of the Romantic and Modernist movements?

Popular Culture

  • A.C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series (1887-1927)
  • Queen Victoria
    • The Young Victoria (2009)
    • Victoria (TV, 2016-ongiong)
    • Mrs. Brown (1997)
    • Victoria & Abdul (2017)

Games

  • Napoleon: Total War (2010)
  • Victoria II (2010)
  • Assassin's Creed series
    • Unity (2014), set in Paris during the Revolution
    • Syndicate (2015), set in late-C19 London